Iraq elects speaker but cabinet posts still not agreed

Lawmakers ended days of stalemate and reached out to Iraq’s Sunni Muslim minority for their parliament speaker, cutting through ethnic and sectarian barriers that have held up selection of a new government for more than two months.

But deputies still face difficult choices for cabinet posts, and yesterday failed again to name a new president – broadly expected to be Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani.

That choice and those of two vice presidents were put off until a Wednesday session that could mark a major milestone as Iraq tries to build a democratic government and civil society.

Once the president and his deputies are selected, they have 14 days to choose a prime minister, the most powerful position in Iraq’s envisioned government hierarchy.

That job was widely believed reserved for Ibrahim al-Jaafari, of the Shiite Muslim majority.

Pressure is building on parliamentarians, with some growing frustrated with the slow pace of forming a government, because they have an August 15 deadline to write a permanent constitution – a task that cannot be undertaken until a government is in place.

Yesterday’s selection as speaker – Industry Minister Hajim al-Hassani, one of only 17 Sunni Arabs in parliament – could signal progress in the political tussle over selecting politicians for key Cabinet posts, a process that has been snarled by disagreement over how to reach out to the Sunnis.

They are believed to make up the backbone of the Iraqi insurgency, were dominant under ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and largely boycotted the January elections or stayed home for fear of being attacked at the polls.

Shortly after the vote, what was believed to have been a mortar round slammed to ground near the lawmakers’ meeting place, the Foreign Ministry, which is not far outside the fortified Green Zone.

There were no reported casualties.

During the session, some lawmakers called for the release of detainees in US military prisons, a day after dozens of insurgents attacked the Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad with car bombs, gunfire, and rocket propelled grenades.

Abu Ghraib was at the centre of a prisoner abuse scandal last year that erupted after photographs became public that showed soldiers with naked inmates piled in a human pyramid and humiliating them sexually.

The US holds 10,500 prisoners in Iraq, with 3,446 at Abu Ghraib.